The Red Pyramid

As fans of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, my children and I were excited about his newest series, The Kane Chronicles. Where Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Lost Heroes focus on Greek and Roman mythology, The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, Book 1) addresses many aspects of Egyptian mythology.

I, myself, am not as knowledgable about Egyptian gods and myths, so it was nice to look more into this aspect of culture, belief, and history. I also loved that the main characters are bi-racial. Just as good books with strong female leads are often hard to find, strong characters of other minority groups are even more difficult to find. Riordan’s small glimpse in the previously separate lives of Carter and Sadie, who exhibit different physical traits, reveals prejudice still felt by many, providing strong bi-racial characters, along with a confident female lead.

While we enjoyed this book and learned more about Egyptian mythology in the process, I’ll admit that I didn’t like it as well as The Lost Heroes series or even the first Percy Jackson series. The book alternates between characters, a style which Riordan often utilizes. However, this book is written as though Carter and Sadie are telling the story and recording it. The conversational retelling was less enjoyable to me. I noticed that my 8 year old, normally my child to laugh out loud as I read to teh kids, didn’t find the book nearly as humorous as The Lost Heroes. That being said, I’m certain my children will reread the book and they are looking forward to the second book in the series.